Gold Fever
by Hannahfour
Summary: Guthrie and Heidi go panning for gold to help their family buy a new roof. But they run into trouble along the way.
1. Chapter 1

"Adam! Brian!" I cry out from my bed. It's thundering outside and I'm scared of thunder. Adam comes running into my room and says, "I'm here. I'm here. Come on."

"You got her Adam?" Brian calls out from downstairs.

"Yeah, I got her," Adam yells down and he picks me up and carries me to his room. He sets me in his bed with Hannah. There's a loud boom and I cry. "Sh. C'mon." Adam climbs into bed next to me and holds me close to him. Hannah's on the other side of me and she puts her hand on my arm and says, "aw, you don't like thunderstorms?" "No!" I cry and shake my head. There's another boom and I jump and squeeze my eyes shut. "She never has liked them. Not even during the day," Adam says.

It's dark in the room except when the lightning strikes. When I see it flash I hug Adam tightly and get ready to hear the thunder. Hannah and Adam stay up with me through the storm until the thunder stops. Then I fall asleep feeling safe in between them.

* * *

When I wake up in the morning it's raining hard outside. I sit up and stretch. Adam and Hannah are already up, so I get out of their bed to go to my room. When I open their door I look down to the living room and I see all kinds of buckets sitting out all over the living room floor. There's water dripping in them that's coming from the ceiling. "What happened?" I yell.

Guthrie yells up to me, "the roof's leaking!"

"It's raining in the house!" I laugh. Daniel comes out of his room and says, "it's not funny. It means we've gotta fix the roof." He tousles my hair as he walks by.

Brian comes in the front door with an empty bucket. He's wearing his rain jacket and hat and when he comes in he trades the empty bucket for a bucket that's full of water and takes it outside to dump it. I run into my room and quickly get dressed and find my rain jacket. I race downstairs and ask Crane if I can help empty buckets. "No. You need to stay out of the way," he says as he carries a bucket outside.

I take my jacket off and walk over to the couch where Guthrie is sitting and I plop down next to him. "That's the same thing they told me," he says glaring at them with his arms folded across his chest. I fold my arms across my chest too and we sit on the couch and watch.

* * *

When the rain has stopped falling and the roof stops leaking we all sit at the table to eat breakfast. Hannah cooked up some bacon and eggs really fast and Crane brought 'the books' over to the table. I don't know what 'the books' are, I just know Crane writes numbers in them and it has to do with money.

Adam asks Crane if we have enough money for new shingles and Crane says no. Then they start talking about how they can afford to pay for a new roof. Everyone starts talking about how much money they have to pitch in, but I don't have any money, so I stop paying attention to all their talking until I hear Guthrie say, "we could look for treasure."

"I wanna do that!" I shout.

"We can't go around looking for treasure," Brian says.

"Maybe we could find 'buried' treasure," I say smiling. Guthrie and I smile at each other.

"That's not a good idea," Crane says.

"You two need to concentrate on your chores and school," Adam says. "Let us worry about money for the roof."

Guthrie looks at me and says, "I thought it was a good idea." And we shrug our shoulders. They never listen to us.

* * *

After breakfast Guthrie and I help Hannah wash the dishes. When we finish we run out the back door to see how we can help our brothers. Crane has a ladder out leaning against the roof and him, Daniel, Evan and Ford are up on top of the roof throwing old shingles down. Guthrie climbs up the ladder and when he gets about halfway up I start climbing up behind him.

"Can we help?" Guthrie yells up.

"Get off the ladder before you both fall!" Crane yells. We both get off and Crane says, "why don't you go see if Adam and Brian need help.

We walk over to a mucky part of the pasture. When we get lots of rain low areas in the grass turn into swampy areas. We walk over to where Adam and Brian are trying to get a cow out of the mud. Adam's in the mud pushing the cow and Brian's pulling the cow with a rope. "Can we help?" I ask.

"Why don't you go ask Hannah if you can help her," Adam says. So we walk towards the house.

"Geeez, they never let us help," Guthrie says.

"I know!" I say. "There has to be some way we can help."

"There is," Guthrie says. "Stay out of their way!" And we put our heads down and drag our feet in the mud back to the house.

* * *

When we get to the door Hannah is there ready to come out. "Hannah, they never let us help," we both complain to her.

"Well, why don't you come into town with me. You can help me."

"Thanks Hannah," we both say, and we run to the truck.

"Wait for me!" She says. We all pile into the front seat and Hannah drives us to town.

* * *

We walk into the General Store and Guthrie says, "let's look at the books and magazines to see if there's one about finding treasure."

"Ok," I say. Usually we go look in the candy isle while Hannah shops.

Guthrie picks up a book about gold panning and I look for something interesting to look at, but I don't see anything. We sit on the floor and look at the book.

"We should pan for gold," Guthrie says.

"I don't know. I'd rather look for buried treasure," I say. Our school goes on a field trip every year to a nearby park in the town of Columbia. The park looks like an old town from the olden days. People that work there dress up in old clothes and pretend they're from the old days. It has lots of stores and some restaurants and a place where you can pan for gold in these boxes they have set up. But we never find any 'real' gold. So I remind Guthrie, "remember every time we go gold panning at Columbia all we ever find are little specks of gold. And when we bring them home to show Crane and he says they're probably only worth about a penny."

"But look at this picture." He shows me a picture in the book of a gold nugget. "This guy found it when he was panning for gold in a river. That's what we need to do, pan in the river!"

"Ok! I bet we'd find lots of gold there. You know Crane is always saying there's still gold around here. Not a lot, but if we work hard enough we might find some," I say.

We look at the book more until Hannah's ready to pay. We walk up to the counter and I see the Sherif putting up a Reward Poster in the store window.

"What's that for?" I ask.

"There's somebody hurting bears in the forest and they need help catching him," Hannah says.

"Why would anyone want to hurt a bear?" Guthrie asks.

"Well, it's hard to explain, but in some places people will pay a lot of money for bear parts."

"What kind of parts?" I ask.

"Well, the fur, the organs inside the bear and their claws. They use bear claws to make jewelry," she says.

"That's not very nice," I say.

The Sherif comes over and talks to us. "You kids be careful if you go wandering out in the woods. There's a hurt bear out there that's been shot. He didn't die but he's been injured. He's mad and he's already hurt a Ranger. So be careful out there, ok?"

"Ok," we both say.

Hannah pays Mr. Gunn, the owner of the store. She grabs two of the four bags to carry out to the truck. "Will you two get the rest of the bags please?" She asks us.

We each pick up a bag and Guthrie says, "we're gonna pan for gold, Mr. Gunn!"

"You are? Well then, you should have a copy of my book, "Gold Fever". It tells you all the best places to pan for gold in this area." And he shows us a copy of it. "Only five dollars."

"I can't afford that," Guthrie says.

"Well, for you two how 'bout a dollar."

"We don't have that either," I say.

"Ok, I'll give it to you and you can pay me back when you strike it rich." We nod our heads. "Now, here's a little secret," he bends down closer to us and whispers, "the best place to pan for gold is the north branch of the river, where the bend is. Do you know where that is?" Mr. Gunn asks us.

"Yes," Guthrie says.

"Thanks Mr. Gunn!" We both say. Guthrie puts the book in one of the bags and we carry the bags out to the truck.

* * *

That night after dinner we help Crane with the dishes. "We're gonna go gold panning," I tell him.

"You are?"

"Yes. And we're gonna strike it rich," Guthrie says. Crane laughs so Guthrie says, "why are you laughing? All we need are some pans and a few other things."

"Ok you two, good luck." Crane says laughing while he leaves the kitchen.

"Heidi, look." Guthrie points to the empty pie pans from dessert, "we could use those." We each sneak a pie pan up to my room. Guthrie gets the gold panning book out and we read about the things we need to bring with us to pan for gold. Then we make plans to sneak out in the morning.

Brian pokes his head in my room and says, "bedtime you two."

"Ok," we both say.

"You two look like you're planning something," he says.

"Nope. Not us," we say smiling up at him.

"Yeah right!" He laughs. "I'll be back in a minute to tuck you in," he tells me and leaves.

"Heidi, it's really important that you don't tell anyone where we're going tomorrow," Guthrie says.

"Why not?" I ask.

"Because they'll just make fun of us, and they probably wouldn't let us go there because of the hurt bear. It's also just a little bit farther than we're supposed to go by ourselves."

"We're not gonna get lost again are we?"

"No. I know the way. Just don't tell anyone."

"Then we can surprise them with all the gold we find," I say.

"Yeah. I'll wake you up in the morning."

After he leaves I get ready for bed. Adam and Hannah say good night to me and then Brian comes in. "Song or story?" He asks me.

"Story," I say. "Tell me the story about when you and Adam were little and went looking for a bear but found a skunk instead.

"Why do you always want to hear that story?" He asks.

"Because I think it's funny." He tells me the story and then asks me if I had a good day.

"Yep. Me and Guthrie are gonna go gold panning!"

"Where?" He asks.

"Oh, that's a secret!" I say smiling. "We're gonna strike it rich and then we won't ever have to worry about money again!"

Brian laughs and stands up to leave. "Well if you strike it rich, just remember I'm your favorite brother. Goodnight twerp!" And he kisses the top of my head on his way out.

I try to go to sleep but I can't because I'm way too excited for the morning to come.


	2. Chapter 2

"Heidi, wake up," I hear Guthrie whisper.

I sit up in my bed fast. "Is it time?" I ask.

"Yes. Get dressed and I'll meet you downstairs."

I get out of bed. I can tell it's really early in the morning because the sun's not shining through my window yet. The sky looks gray. I get dressed in my usual stuff, plaid long-sleeved shirt, jeans, cowgirl boots, and my baseball hat. I walk really quietly by Adam and Hannah's door and downstairs to meet Guthrie in the kitchen. I pass by Brian who's still asleep and snoring on the couch.

"I'm ready," I whisper to Guthrie. I can see Guthrie writing something on a piece of paper. "What are you writing?"

"I'm writing that we're going gold panning and that we'll be back in time for the street dance."

"Are you telling them where we're going?"

"No I'm just saying gold panning."

"We're not gonna get in trouble for that are we?" I ask. We're supposed to tell someone where we're going.

"We shouldn't. I mean technically we're telling them where we're going because they know it has to be at the river."

"Ok," I say. Then I look by him and I see two backpacks sitting on the floor full of stuff. "What're those for?"

"That's all the stuff we're gonna need. We have to bring our gold panning supplies, I've got some food packed and here's your canteen." He hands it to me.

"It looks like we're running away."

"Well we're not. Just think of all the gold we're gonna find!" He says.

"Yeah! Then they'll listen to us!" I say.

"Sh. We don't wanna wake Brian up." He hands me my pack and we go out the back door as quietly as we can.

* * *

"Guthrie, are we almost there?" It feels like we've been walking for hours. My pack feels heavy now and I'm hungry. "Can we stop and eat?" I ask. "We didn't have any breakfast."

"We're almost there. Come on."

I follow behind Guthrie. We've been walking in the woods for a while now and I can finally hear the river.

"See, we're almost there!" He shouts, walking faster.

I look down and I can see the river. It's big and there's tons of rocks all over the place. "Wait for me!" I yell.

Guthrie stops and points to a huge wide bend in the river. It looks shallower than the rest of the river and it's a lot flatter. "That's where we're gonna find lots of gold!" We make our way down to the water and put our packs down. It feels good to have it off my back.

"Can we eat now?" I ask.

"I guess so," Guthrie says. We take our sandwiches out of our packs. "Let's hurry and eat so we can get started. We can't stay here long because we have to get back early."

Guthrie takes out his pie pan and a small shovel from his pack. I look in my pack and find the same things. There's lots of other things in my backpack but I don't know what they're for.

We go down to the water and get in it. The water is a little bit cold but not bad. It's hard to walk on the rocks with cowgirl boots on but I'm used to it. The water comes up farther on my legs than Guthrie. But I follow him to a shallower spot that's kind of like a mini island in the middle of the river, except its got about a foot of water covering it.

"This'll be a good spot," Guthrie says stopping. We crouch down and start panning. "Remember, the shiny specks that settle are just the fool's gold."

"I know, I remember how to do it." I dig my pan in the ground at the bottom of the water and fill my pan halfway with the sandy ground and I start swishing my pan around so it settles. "What's the shovel for?" I ask.

"I'm not really sure yet because I haven't read that far. The book just said to bring one. I guess we could dig up some of the dirt?"

We sit and pan for a long time and find nothing. "Maybe we should go home and try again tomorrow," Guthrie says.

"But we haven't found anything yet. Let's stay a little longer," I say. We sit and pan some more.

"Heidi, look!" Guthrie shouts. He holds up a small gold nugget. It's about the size of a raisin and it's kind of shaped like one too.

"Wow! How much do you think it's worth?" I ask.

"I don't know but I bet it's a lot!" Guthrie pulls out a small drawstring pouch from his pocket. He puts the nugget inside and puts the pouch back in his pocket. "Let's look for more!" We start panning again when all of a sudden we hear a loud growl.

"What's that noise?" I ask. We look around.

"It sounds like a bear!" Guthrie says. Then we hear another growl and look on the other side of the river and see a bear. He looks and sounds mad. "Look Heidi, he's got blood on his shoulder!"

I look and I see a big patch of dried blood on his shoulder. "It's the hurt bear! What do we do Guthrie?"

"Remember we're supposed to make lots of noise and stand up real tall so we look big. Bang your shovel on your pan and yell real loud and it'll go away. It'll be scared of us. Just whatever you do, don't run!"

I stand up as tall as I can and shout. I bang my shovel on my pan and Guthrie does the same. The bear stands up on his back legs and growls at us really loud. "It's not working Guthrie! What do we do now?" I cry.

"Run Heidi! Run up the river!"

We drop our shovels and pans and start running as fast as we can up the river. It's hard to run and I slip and fall a lot but I pick myself up and keep going. After a while Guthrie stops and looks back. "We can stop. He's not following us." I stop and turn around and the bear is gone. "That was close!" Guthrie says. "Are you ok?" He asks.

I start crying. Guthrie comes over and hugs me. "It's ok now. The bear's gone."

"I'm scared! Why wasn't he afraid of us? What if he comes back?" I ask.

"I guess he wasn't afraid because he's hurt." Guthrie stops hugging me and says, "look," he points over to where our packs are, "we just have to get those and then we'll go back home."

"Ok." We carefully walk over to where we were panning and pick up our pans and shovels. We go over to our packs and pack them up and put them on our backs.

"What if the bear is over here?" I ask.

"We'd hear it growling if it was."

We head on home but I'm still worried about the bear. We try to hurry so we won't be late.

When we get to the barn we hide our packs up in the loft. Guthrie looks at me. "We're gonna have to change our clothes 'cause we're so dirty. Are you hurt anywhere?"

"I just have a few scrapes on my hands and probably my knees, but nothing too bad."

"Good. Now remember, don't tell anyone where we were. Don't tell them about the nugget and definitely don't tell them about the bear! We'll go back tomorrow and find some more gold.

"I won't tell," I say, "but what if something happens to us tomorrow?" Who's gonna find us?" I ask.

"Don't worry," Guthrie says, "I have a plan." And he walks over to Evan.

* * *

I follow him over and we climb the fence and sit on top of it.

"Evan! Come here. I got something to show you." Guthrie yells.

Evan comes riding over to us on his horse, Diablo. He laughs at us. "You two are a mess! What've you been doing?"

"Look." Guthrie takes the pouch out of his pocket and takes the nugget out. He holds it up for Evan to see.

"Wow, where'd you get that?"

"That's our secret," Guthrie says, looking at me. I smile and nod my head. "And there's plenty more where that came from. But, we need a little bit more money for supplies. Do you wanna buy a share of our gold mine?"

"Well, I do have five dollars I was saving for new reins that I'm throwing in the roof pot."

"Please?" Guthrie says and he nudges me.

"Pleeeeeese?" I say smiling my biggest smile.

"Ok, I guess so."

"Good. Now we gotta keep it secret so we only have to split the money three ways. Besides nobody else would believe me if I told them we found a nugget. Ok?"

"You got a deal," Evan says, and we all shake on it.

"We gotta go get ready for the dance," Guthrie says. And we jump off the fence and run to the house.

* * *

We open the door and Hannah is standing in the living room. "Good you're back just in time. How was gold panning?" We race up the stairs.

"Can't talk now Hannah. We've got to get changed," Guthrie says.

"Hold it right there!" Adam says. We freeze on the stairs. "Where have you two been?"

"Didn't you get my note Adam?" Guthrie asks.

"Yes. But it doesn't say _where_ you went. Where were you?" He asks.

I look at Guthrie. "Just out by the river," he says. Well that's not really a lie, I think to myself. We _were_ by the river. Just not the part of the river Adam thinks.

"Well next time I want you to tell someone _where_ you're going. Ok?" He says.

"Ok!" We yell. And we finish running upstairs to change.

* * *

Before we leave for the dance Guthrie and I go find Ford. He's in his bedroom getting ready for the dance.

"Look what we found!" Guthrie pulls the pouch out of his pocket and takes the nugget out to show Ford.

"Wow! That's huge!" He says. "Where'd you find it?"

"That's a secret," I say.

"Do you wanna buy a share of our gold mine?" Guthrie asks.

"Sure," Ford says and he walks over to his dresser to get his money.

"Whatever we find we split three ways," Guthrie says. "Just you, me and Heidi."

"But...," I start to say when Guthrie nudges me and shakes his head no. Ford gives Guthrie his money and we leave.

"But what about Evan?" I ask.

"Sh," he says and he pushes me into my room and shuts the door. "It's all part of my plan. You'll see."

"But what do we need the money for?" I ask.

"We can buy real gold pans from Mr. Gunn and find even more gold!"

"Oh, ok!"

"Let's go guys!" Hannah yells.

* * *

We all drive into Murphys for the 4-H Street Dance. Every year 4-H has a dance to raise money.

"We should have a dance to raise money for our roof," I tell Crane. He laughs.

"It doesn't work that way Heidi." And he picks me up and puts me on his shoulders so I can see the band better.

Daniel's band is playing at the dance. This year he's letting Ford sing a song with his band. Ford has a good singing voice like Daniel's. From up on Crane's shoulders I can see everything. Brian's talking to a pretty girl across the street, Evan's dancing with a pretty girl, Hannah and Adam are dancing and Guthrie's standing near us dancing a little. When Daniel calls Ford up to the stage to sing Ford doesn't want to go up. He's a little shy sometimes. But Evan and Brian get him and take him over to the stage and push him up on it. He sings his song and he's really good.

After the song the dance ends and we all head on over to the jeep and the truck. Ford comes running over.

"Guess what guys! I got a singing gig in Sonora. It's the day after tomorrow! It pays a hundred dollars! That'll be a lot of money to help with the roof!" He says.

My brothers pat him on the back and congratulate him. "That's great Ford," Hannah says giving him a hug.

"Guess what?" I say. Everyone looks at me. "Guthrie and I found...ow!" Guthrie kicks me from behind.

"Found what?" They all ask.

"Nothing," I say, glaring at Guthrie. And they all go back to congratulating Ford.

* * *

I'm running through the woods as fast as I can. The bear is chasing me. I look back and he has blood dripping all over his fur. He's growling and I can see his sharp teeth! He's too fast and he's caught up with me and he gets ready to bite! I try to scream but I can't at first. Then I can and I scream as loud as I can!

"Heidi wake up! Wake up! You're having a bad dream." I'm still screaming and I open my eyes and see Adam sitting on my bed and Hannah standing in the doorway. I sit up and grab onto Adam and cry.

"Sh. It's over now." He says. Hannah sits down on my bed and rubs my back.

"It got me!" I cry.

"What got you?"

"The bear! It was bloody and had sharp teeth! It was going to bite me!" I cry.

"You're safe now." Adam says.

"She must've been dreaming about the bear the Sherif was talking about yesterday at the General Store," Hannah tells Adam.

Adam rocks me and says, "there's no bear here. That bear is far away from here and you'll never see it."

I cry. I can't tell them that I've already seen it and I'm scared of it. What if it followed us home. "What if it _is_ here?" I ask.

"It's not. The animals would be making a lot of noise if it was," Adam says. "Now lets get you back to sleep."

He starts to lay me back down but I won't let go. "Don't leave me!" I cry.

"I'll stay here with her," Hannah tells Adam. "You go back to bed." Adam passes me off to her and he kisses us goodnight.

"Are you sure?" He asks Hannah.

"Yes. I've got this," she tells him.

Adam leaves and Hannah says, "let's lay down and I'll sleep right here next to you." She lays me down and then she lays next to me and holds me. She starts singing softly and I stop crying. I listen to her voice and fall asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

I only wake up two more times during the night and Hannah is right there with me. I keep dreaming about the bear and it's scary. But morning finally comes and I wake up to the sun shining on me through my window. Hannah is still here laying with me and she's awake too.

"Good morning," she says, smiling at me and gives me a kiss on my forehead. "How 'bout some breakfast?" She asks. "It smells like Brian's got something good cooking down there." I nod my head yes, and we get up.

* * *

After breakfast Guthrie's ready to go gold panning.

"I don't know if I wanna go. What if the bear comes back?" I ask.

"I'm sure the bear's gone by now. Don't you want to get more gold?" Guthrie asks.

"Yes. I'm just scared of the bear."

"We'll be ok. I'll protect you. Come on." We walk over to the barn and get our packs from the loft.

* * *

When we get to the bend in the river we put our packs down and get out our pans. We pan for a little bit until we hear a loud noise. Guthrie and I stand up and look around.

"What do you think it is?" I ask.

"I don't know, it sounds like a generator. C'mon." We make our way down the river where the noise is coming from. When we get close we hide behind a rock and peek over it. "It's a dredge," Guthrie whispers to me. There's a long hose going into the water and all kinds of bubbles coming up. We stand up to get a better look and this man pops up out of the water dressed in a scuba suit. We jump and then a voice behind us says, "what're you two doing out here?"

We look behind us and there's a tall man standing there. He's not smiling and he has a shotgun that he's carrying in his hand. I look up at him and he's tall like Adam and Brian. I feel a little scared and I grab Guthrie's arm and try to hide behind him.

The man reaches over and takes the gold panning book out of Guthrie's pocket. "Gold panning?" He says with a little bit of a smile.

"Yeah. Look what we found." Guthrie takes the pouch out of his pocket and takes the nugget out. I relax now because Guthrie seems to like him.

"Where'd you find it?" The man asks.

"Just upstream a bit. My name's Guthrie and this is my sister Heidi."

"Hi," I say, "we're panning for gold."

"My name's Ace," the tall man says, "and this is my buddy Lucky."

"Those are funny names," I say laughing.

"What're you doing with the dredge?" Guthrie asks.

"Getting gold," Lucky says.

"What's a dredge?" I ask.

"Well, it helps me get gold from the bottom of the river," Lucky says.

"I wish we had a dredge," Guthrie says.

"I'll tell you what Guthrie, you help us here with the dredge, and then we'll help you dredge your area," Ace says. "And then we'll split the gold."

"Ok!" We both say. "It's a deal!"

"Then let's shake on it." We all shake hands. Then Ace says, "but this is just between us, ok? Don't tell nobody, not your friends, not even your family."

"Oh, we won't tell anyone. We're trying to find gold so we can help our family buy a new roof," Guthrie says, "we want to surprise them!"

"Come on over here Guthrie and I'll show you how to help me," Lucky says. Guthrie walks over to Lucky and they start talking. I look up at Mr. Ace.

"We saw a bear yesterday," I tell him. "He had blood on him and looked really scary. I hope he doesn't come back."

"I'll tell you what, if he comes back I'll scare him away with my shotgun. How 'bout that?"

I smile. "Ok. My brothers have shotguns. They use them to scare coyotes away and other animals that come on our ranch."

"Now where abouts did you see this bear?" He asks.

"Down that way," I say pointing downstream. And he walks off downstream. I go down to the river to help Guthrie and Lucky. We work for about an hour or two and the dredge seems to work because we're finding gold. Lucky puts it in his bag.

"We gotta get back home now," Guthrie says. "We'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye," I say, "tell Mr. Ace I said bye."

"Bye kids."

* * *

We walk down to where we left our backpacks. "They were nice," I say.

"Yeah. We're gonna find so much gold. We'll all by rich!" We put our packs on and then Guthrie says, "lets hide our nugget here so we won't lose it."

"Ok," I say and we find a hole in a tree to put the pouch in. And then we walk back home talking about all the things we're going to buy when we're rich.

* * *

When we get to the barn we put our backpacks up in the loft and walk over to the house. Evan is sitting on the porch so we look around to see if anybody else is around, and when we see no one Guthrie says, "we got more gold today!"

Evan smiles, "let me see it."

"We hid it at the site!" Guthrie says.

"What do we do if something happens?" He asks.

"To us, or the gold?" Guthrie asks.

"You guys of course," Evan says. And he laughs and flicks Guthrie's hat.

"I got it all planned out." Guthrie pulls a paper out of his back pocket. I look and see that it's a map. He tears it in half and gives Evan one half. "If anything happens to us the other half will show up." And he stuffs the other half in his pocket.

We see Crane come out of the house and he's walking towards us. Evan gets up and says, "I'll go put this in a safe place." And he goes inside.

"We'll give Ford the other half tonight," Guthrie whispers to me.

"Hey you two, there's some dishes in the kitchen waiting to be washed," Crane says to us and hands me a dish towel.

"How come we always gotta do them?" I ask.

"Just because," he says smiling at us. "Hey, let me look at your hands. They look chapped." He kneels down and looks at Guthrie's hands and then mine. "Where'd you get those scrapes?" He asks me. He's not smiling anymore and he looks serious. I look at Guthrie and then back at Crane and don't say anything. "Panning for gold?" He asks looking into my eyes.

I nod my head and say, "uh huh."

"You two aren't wandering too far away from the house are you?"

"Not really," Guthrie says.

"What are you going to do with all this gold you find?" He asks.

"Buy shingles for the roof," Guthrie says.

Crane looks into our eyes real serious now and says, "I'm not too wild about you being out there by yourselves. They haven't found that hurt bear yet."

"That's way far away from where we're working," Guthrie tells him.

"Are you sure about that?"

I just nod my head and Guthrie says, "I can take care of myself. I'm not a ten-year old!"

"That's true, but this one is," he says looking at me.

"I can take care of myself!" I say.

"I'll take good care of her Crane," Guthrie says.

"Alright. Those dishes aren't going to wash themselves," he says getting up and pushing us towards the house.

Once we're in the kitchen and Crane is gone I look at Guthrie and say, "Guthrie we just lied to Crane."

"I know," he says.

"I don't want to get in trouble again."

"Me either. But they won't be mad at us once they see all the gold we got!"

* * *

At dinner time Ford tells us all about the song he's singing at the fairgrounds tomorrow.

Adam points down at us and says, "we're all going to the fairgrounds to hear Ford sing. I know you've been doing some gold panning, and I want you back here in time to go with us. You got that?" We nod our heads.

"I'm serious now. Don't be late." We nod our heads again.

* * *

That night Adam tucks me in. After he reads me a story he asks me about my day. "Are you and Guthrie finding any gold?"

I smile at him, "maybe. It's a secret."

"Oh it is, is it," he says tickling me.

"Yep! It's a big secret," I say laughing.

"Are you still worried about the bear?" He asks more serious now.

"I don't think so." I answer. I'm not going to tell him about Mr. Ace because I don't think he'd like him, and because I'm not supposed to tell.

"Well, sweet dreams," he says and kisses me goodnight.

* * *

That night I have a bad dream but it's not about the bear, it's about Mr. Ace. He chases me, and in my dream he's really, really tall and angry looking. I wake up and I'm still really scared. I get out of bed and go to Adam and Hannah's room. I open their door and walk to the end of their bed and crawl up the middle of it so I'm in between them, and I get under the covers. They both wake up and Adam says, "hey," he gives me a hug, "did you have another bad dream?"

"Yes," I say, snuggling in between them.

"Was it the bear again," Hannah asks.

I yawn, "no. It was about Mr. Ace." And I close my eyes.

"Who's Mr. Ace?" Adam asks while yawning.

"He's a tall, bad man." I say, and I drift off to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

After breakfast Guthrie and I walk out to the barn. Adam is already out there putting a saddle on his horse. When he sees us he calls over to us, "hey Guthrie? Who's Mr. Ace?"

We stop at the fence and Guthrie turns around and looks at me. "Did you tell him?" He whispers. I shake my head no.

"Heidi was talking about him last night. Who is he?" Adam asks again.

"I don't know," he says, glaring at me.

Adam looks at both of us. I whisper to Guthrie, "I just told him I had a bad dream about him."

"What are you two whispering about?" Adam asks, walking over to us.

"Nothing. I don't know who she's talking about," Guthrie says, shrugging his shoulders.

Adam stops at the fence and looks at me and then Guthrie. He looks at us very seriously. "You two aren't getting into any trouble are you?"

I look up at him and slowly shake my head no.

"No," Guthrie says.

"You'd tell me if you were?" He asks.

I nod my head and Guthrie says, "sure. You don't have to worry about us."

"I hope not," Adam says and he walks over to his horse and gets on. "Remember, be back in time to go to the fairgrounds."

"We will. Bye," we say, waving to Adam as he rides off.

"That was close!" Guthrie says. Then he glares at me, "_we_ gotta be more careful."

"Sorry," I say and we hop the fence and go into the barn to get our backpacks down from the loft. Then we head on out to the river.

* * *

When we get close to Mr. Ace and Lucky's camp we hear arguing. We stop to listen. We can't hear what they're saying but it sounds like they're mad at each other. Then Mr. Ace walks up to his truck, gets in, and drives away. "He looked mad, Guthrie," I say.

"I know. Let's go get our gold nugget and come back here to help Lucky so we can get home on time. We walk over to our hiding spot and Guthrie takes the pouch out with the nugget in it and puts it in his front shirt pocket. Then we go back to help Lucky.

* * *

We've been panning for a while when Lucky says we should take a break. Lucky holds his bag of gold up for us to see. It's about the size of a bag of marbles and it's full.

"How much do you think we got?" Guthrie asks.

"Oh, about two thousand dollars." Lucky says.

"Wow!" I say. "We could buy lots of things with that!"

"Yeah," Guthrie says. "I can't wait to see our brother's faces. Let's give them just enough money to fix the roof and then we can spend the rest." Then Guthrie asks Lucky, "is this all you guys do? Hunt for buried treasure?"

"Sort of." Lucky says, and he looks a little sad. "We're going to Colorado next to look for silver."

"Hey, how come you do all the work? I don't see Mr. Ace much." Guthrie asks.

"Yeah. Where'd he go?" I ask.

Lucky looks nervous now. "He's at the assayer's office in Angeles Camp."

Guthrie looks at me slyly, and then he says to Lucky, "I thought the assayer's office was in Stockton."

"Yeah well, whichever," Lucky says nervously and he walks back down to the river and gets back to work.

"Heidi, something's wrong." Guthrie says.

What'd you mean? What's an assayer's office? I ask.

"It's a place you take your gold to and they tell you how much it's worth. But why would Mr. Ace be there now when Lucky has all the gold here?" Guthrie looks like he's thinking about something.

"Should we go home?" I ask.

"No, let's get our gold first and then we'll go."

Lucky calls up to us, "Looks like we've just about tapped this area out kids. When Ace gets back we can divide it up."

* * *

We hear a truck pull up just above the camp and Mr. Ace comes walking down to us. "Let's break camp guys so we can get out of here," he says to all of us.

"Can we divide up the gold now? We gotta get back pretty soon. My brother's singing at the fairgrounds this afternoon and we don't wanna be late," Guthrie tells him.

Mr. Ace looks at us, "if we all work together we'll be done in no time. We'll even give you a ride back home."

Guthrie and I smile at each other. "Thanks! Then we don't have to worry."

"Now you two go on downstream and get the rest of that scuba diving equipment, while Lucky and I pack up here." Mr. Ace tells us.

We go downstream a bit and then Guthrie stops.

"What're you doing?" I ask.

"Come with me. Something's not right." He takes my hand and we sneak up to Mr. Ace's truck.

* * *

When we get to the truck Guthrie walks over to the back and opens up an ice chest. We look inside and find beer. Guthrie opens up the next ice chest and I start to scream. Guthrie covers my mouth, "sh!" Inside are cut off bear paws laying on ice.

"Why do they have those?" I ask. I feel really scared now and I feel like crying but I know I need to be quiet.

"Sh, these are the bad guys the Sherif was talking about!"

"They're killing the bears for parts?" I ask.

"Yes, and we're gonna stop them!" Guthrie walks over to the front of the truck and opens the hood. He looks around a little and then takes a car part out.

"What're you doing Guthrie? I ask.

"I'm taking the rotor out so they can't drive their truck. C'mon!" He says and we run down to the river away from Mr. Ace and Lucky's camp and Guthrie hides the rotor in some bushes.

"I'm scared Guthrie," I say. "I don't want to go back over there."

"I know, but we gotta get our gold." He turns and looks at me right in my eyes. "They won't hurt us, I promise. We're just two little kids. We gotta get our gold and then we'll go home. Just pretend that we don't know they're bad guys."

"Ok," I say, but I'm still scared. And we make our way over to their camp.

* * *

"Can we divvy up now?" Guthrie asks. I hide behind him. "We should've been home an hour ago. My brothers will be worried."

Mr. Ace looks a little mad now as he looks at us. "They wouldn't be worried about a smart boy and little girl like you two. Why I bet you two could find your way home in the dark if you had to."

"What'd you mean?" Guthrie asks.

"Well, we've had a change of plans. Lucky wants to keep the gold for ourselves."

We look over at Lucky, who's sitting on a log, and he looks down at the ground.

"Hey! You can't do that! We worked hard for our share!" Guthrie yells.

"Yeah!" I yell. "That's our gold too!"

Ace yells at us. "Not my problem! You should be worried about how you're going to get through the woods! There's a mauled bear out there that can pick up your scent!" I start crying. "You might even want to spend the night up in a tree and go home in the morning." Ace reaches over to Guthrie and yanks the pouch with the gold nugget in it out of his pocket and puts it in his.

"Hey! That's ours!" We yell.

"Not anymore!" And he looks at us real meanly. "Be careful who you do business with. The world's full of crooks!" And then he picks up some of the equipment and carries it up to the truck.

I'm really scared now and I look at Guthrie, "I wanna go home!"

Guthrie looks at Lucky who's still sitting nearby on a log holding his bag of gold. "You better get going," Lucky says. "Ace is pretty mad."

Guthrie reaches over to Lucky and grabs the bag of gold out of his hand. Then he grabs my hand and pulls me along with him as he runs down to the river. Lucky chases after us yelling, "stop! Give me the gold! I won't hurt you guys!"

We run along side the river for what seems like forever with Lucky chasing after us. I'm crying and Guthrie keeps yelling, "run Heidi! Faster!"

"I can't!" I say, slowing down. I need to rest so I stop and lean against a big log laying on the ground. Lucky stops to rest too.

"C'mon guys, just give me the gold. If you throw it over to me I'll stop chasing you and let you go," he says.

"I don't believe you! You lied to us!" Guthrie yells. "And you've been killing bears and cutting them up!"

"Look Guthrie, you're not old enough to know how these things work," he says. "This ain't no game! Now give me the gold!" And he starts after us again.

We start running and the bag of gold must've ripped on the log because I see a little bit of gold spilling out of the bag.

Lucky must've seen it too because he yells out, "stop Guthrie! You're spilling the gold!"

Guthrie looks at the bag and runs into the river with me following after him. Gold is spilling out of the bag and into the water. Guthrie stops and I hide behind him. "Stop chasing us! Stay away or I spill it all!" He yells and starts shaking the bag a little so more gold falls out.

"Stop Guthrie!" Lucky yells. "I'll split it with you Guthrie, I'll split it with you!"

"No! I'm gonna spill it!" And he drops the bag in the river. "C'mon," he says to me and grabs my hand and and we run across to the other side of the river. We look back and see Lucky in the river trying to find the bag of gold.

"Let's go home now Guthrie, please!" I cry, pulling on his arm.

"I'm sorry Heidi," he looks at me and I can see he's been crying too. "I'm sorry we didn't get any gold."

"Me too," I say hugging him.

"We'd better get out of here. Let's go upstream a little and we'll cross back over and go home." Then Guthrie puts his hands on my shoulders and looks into my eyes, "but we gotta run in case Lucky decides to chase us again." I nod my head and we start running.

Then we hear Ace yelling from the other side of the river. "Get back here you two!"

Guthrie grabs my hand and instead of running up the river so we can cross he leads me into the woods.

"Stop! Give me back my rotor!" Ace yells. And then I hear a shotgun go off.

"Run, Heidi, run!" Guthrie yells at me and we run crying as fast as we can into the woods.


	5. Chapter 5

"Guthrie I'm scared!" I yell out as I'm running.

"I know, me too! But we gotta run faster! C'mon!" We run until we find a log laying on the ground big enough to hide behind. We huddle there breathing heavily.

"Is...he...going...to kill us?" I ask gasping for air.

"I...I don't know," Guthrie says. He's tired too. "If we're quiet maybe he won't find us." We hug each other and cry softly.

But we can hear Ace running in the distance and getting closer. And then we hear him yell. "C'mon Guthrie! Give me back the rotor and I'll stop shooting!" It sounds like he's getting closer.

Guthrie takes his shirt off and lays it on top of a bush behind the log. "This will make it look like we're hiding here," he whispers. Then he puts his hands on the sides of my arms and looks into my watery eyes. "We're gonna have to run Heidi. Fast." He whispers and I nod my head. "You can do it." And then he takes my hand again and we run through the woods. I hear another shot from the shotgun.

I scream and trip and fall down. "C'mon Heidi we can't stop!" Guthrie pulls me up quickly and we run. We run until we find ourselves at the bottom of a hill and I'm so tired I have to stop. It's a granite rock hill with no trees on it and rock outcroppings all over. It has a dirt path that leads up it and when I look up to the top of the hill, it looks so far away. Guthrie pulls at me.

"We can't stop!" He yells. He points up the hill and says, "we'll hide behind that big rock up there. C'mon!" He keeps pulling at me until I start moving and we run up the hill as fast and as best as we can. It's hard to run up but we make it to a big boulder and hide behind it. I hear another gun shot and Guthrie puts his hand over my mouth. He looks in my eyes and says "I'm gonna kick a big rock down to try and stop him. When I do, you run. Then I'll follow right behind you. Ok?" He takes his hand away from my mouth and I nod my head. I can hear Ace down at the bottom of the hill. Guthrie puts his feet behind a big rock that's not embedded in the ground and pushes it as hard as he can with his feet. "Go!" He yells to me.

I get up and run as fast as I can. I can hear the rock rolling down the hill. I don't look back I just keep running and I'm back in the woods now and I can hear Guthrie behind me. I trip on something and fall. Guthrie picks me up and I'm breathing hard. "I'm tired," I gasp. Guthrie looks around and then grabs my hand. We run to a huge log laying on the ground. Guthrie climbs over it and helps pull me over to the other side.

"I...can't...run...anymore," I gasp. I look at Guthrie and he looks just as tired as me.

"I know, I can't either" he says. He's crying now too. He puts his arms around me and we huddle there behind the log.

We hear Ace run up and stop just before the log. "You did real good Guthrie, trying to protect your sister. Just show me where the rotor is and I'll let her go." I can see over the log and Ace has his shotgun pointed at us. I hug Guthrie tightly and squeeze my eyes shut.

We hear what sounds like footsteps running in our direction and Guthrie and I just hold on to each other and cry. Then I hear a voice yell, "Drop it!" I know the voice. It sounds like Brian but I'm not sure. I hug Guthrie tighter. "Mister you got three seconds to decide if you want to see tomorrow! Drop it!"

And then I hear someone climb over the log and I feel someone putting their arms around us. I scream and try to get away but they hold me tight so I can't. I open my eyes and it's Adam. I hug him so hard he almost falls over. I look over to where Ace is and I see Brian standing near him pointing his shotgun at him.

"You ok?" Adam asks hugging us both and kissing the tops of our heads. We don't answer. We just hang onto him tightly and cry. I can't believe they found us.

After a while Guthrie leans back and Adam asks, "you alright?"

"I am now," Guthrie says. "I've never been so scared in my life!" He cries and hugs Adam again. I haven't let go yet. I won't let go. "Thanks Adam," Guthrie says and then he yells over to Brian, "thanks Brian." And he hugs Adam again. We can't stop crying and Adam just holds us. "I'm just so grateful you guys are alive," he says, kissing us again.

After a while Adam says, "let's get you two home." Adam tries to stand up but I don't let go. I don't want to be anywhere near Ace. I'm still afraid of him. Guthrie climbs over the log and walks over to Brian. Adam looks at me and whispers, "is that Mr. Ace?" I bury my face against his neck. I nod and start crying again. He hugs me tighter.

"That's Ace and there's another guy named Lucky," Guthrie says. "They've been killing bears and cutting them up!"

"I know," Brian says, "we found their truck." He motions towards Ace with his shotgun and says, "let's go."

Adam tries to get over the log with me but he can't. So he sets me on top of the log and I try to cling to him. He looks into my eyes, "sit here," he says and he climbs over and picks me up again. "I've got you, ok?" I look into his eyes and nod my head. We all start the hike back. It's going to be a long way back to camp.

* * *

"What happened Guthrie? How'd you meet this guy?" Brian asks while we're walking. Brian throws Guthrie's shirt to him and he puts it on.

Guthrie tells them the story about us helping them pan for gold and how he found out they were killing the bears. "I took the rotor out of the truck so they couldn't go anywhere."

"Good job little buddy," Brian says.

Guthrie walks out in front of Ace and Brian. "This area looks familiar," he says. "Their camp's this way." And he leads us back.

"Did you guys really get some gold?" Adam asks me. But I don't answer. I can hear him but I also keep hearing the shotgun go off in my head. "Are you ok?" He asks me. But I don't answer. He stops and looks at me but all I can do is stare back. "It's ok, Heidi, you don't have to talk." And he holds me tight.

* * *

It's dark by the time we get back to camp and then we walk up to where Ace's truck is. My other brothers are there. Guthrie runs over to them and they all start hugging him and asking him questions. When they see Brian walking up with with Ace they ask even more questions. Adam and are behind them.

When Adam carries me over to them they come running up to us and start asking me questions. They all either rub my back, smooth my hair back or kiss the top of my forehead. I can feel them but it's hard to hear them. Their voices sound very far away and I can't make out what they're saying. It's hard to see them because my eyes can't seem to focus. I hear someone say, "here, you're shivering." I feel someone put a jacket on top of me and I start to feel warm in Adam's arms. I didn't realize I was so cold.

Adam yells for everyone to quiet down. When they finally do he says, "Crane, this guy is one of the poachers. Take the jeep and go get the Sheriff. We'll all wait here. And tell him there's another one out there somewhere." Crane runs over to the jeep. "And call Hannah!" Crane jumps in the jeep and takes off. Everyone watches him leave and things sound quiet for a little while until Guthrie says something.

"He's got our gold nugget," I hear Guthrie say.

"Is that so?" Brian asks looking at Ace and poking him with his shotgun.

Ace reaches into his pocket and takes out the pouch. He throws it over to Guthrie. Then Brian motions with his shotgun for Ace to walk further up the road with him and Daniel so I can no longer see him.

Guthrie takes the nugget out of the pouch so he can show everyone. Evan and Ford say, "it's a good thing you gave us that map."

"Yeah," Guthrie says and they hug him. Then Evan and Ford come over to me and I hear them ask me something, but I can't answer. Everything seems to be moving in slow motion now. I just keep hanging on tight to Adam.

"What's wrong with her? Is she ok?" They ask Adam.

"I think she's in shock." He says. "She'll be ok."

"You _will_ be ok," he whispers to me while hugging me and kissing the top of my head. Then he says to everyone, "why don't we all sit down and wait for Crane and the sheriff. We might be here for a while." Everyone finds a place to sit and I feel like they're all staring at me.

"I'm sorry Adam," I hear Guthrie say.

"Hey, let's not talk about that now. I'm still just so grateful you guys are alive!" He smiles at me and then down at Guthrie. "Right now we just need to wait here for the Sheriff and then we'll all go home together."

Then I hear lots of talking as they ask Guthrie more questions and Guthrie tells more of the story to everyone. "We're gonna be talking about this story for a long time," Ford says.

"Yeah, you guys are lucky to be alive!" Evan says. I hear footsteps running up and then there's shouting.

"Hey Adam!" Daniel yells. "Here comes Crane in the jeep, and the Sheriff's right behind him!"

I hear the jeep and another car drive up, and people getting out. Then there's lots of talking. The Sheriff puts handcuffs on Ace and Brian shows the Sheriff the ice chests with bear paws in them.

"Why don't you all go home now. We'll take this guy into town and get a search party out in the morning for the other guy. Thanks you guys," the Sheriff says shaking Brian's hand. "Adam, I'll be over sometime tomorrow to ask you guys some questions."

"Alright Sheriff," Adam says. And then he says quietly to me, "let's get you home."


	6. Chapter 6

I don't remember the ride home, but I remember Hannah running out to the jeep and asking me if I was ok. I remember her kissing me and then I remember hearing her talk to Guthrie. I remember being rushed into the house, and then I remember closing my eyes and falling asleep.

* * *

I'm running as fast as I can again. The bear is chasing me and he's bloody all over. He's growling at me and his teeth look sharp. He's almost caught up with me and then I hear the bang of a shotgun. I scream as loud as I can.

"Heidi!" I hear my name being called but I also hear the shotgun. I keep screaming while I'm hitting and kicking the bear off of me. "Heidi! Stop!" I open my eyes and I'm on the couch hitting and kicking Adam. I stop and look around. Everyone is in the living room and they're all staring at me.

"You're awake," Hannah says coming over and sitting on the arm of the couch. She smooths my hair back away from face and smiles at me. "You took a little nap there for a while."

"How do you feel?" Adam asks while holding me.

I look at everyone and they're all staring at me. I cry.

"Sh, you're safe now," Adam whispers and holds me tight. Hannah scoots in next to us on the couch and I feel her arms around me too.

Daniel starts to play his guitar softly and sing and Crane joins in. Their voices help calm me down a little. Guthrie is sitting on the other side of Adam leaning against Brian. I look down at him and his cheeks are all dirty from wiping his tears away. He sees me looking at him and smiles up at me.

Adam is still holding me and he whispers, "Sh. They can't hurt you anymore." But I'm not so sure. All I can hear is the sound of shotguns going off in my ears. The images of us being chased keep racing through my head. I start to rock back and forth. And then I feel someone rocking with me.

I jump when I hear a knock at the door. I look over to it and Crane is letting the doctor in. I hear them talking but I'm not sure what they're saying. The doctor walks over to where we're sitting on the couch and sits on the coffee table in front of us.

"Thanks for coming Doc," Adam says.

"You did the right thing by calling me," he says. "I'll check them out to make sure everything's ok."

The Doctor looks at us. "I hear you guys were very brave today."

"We were chased by some bad guys. One of them shot at us!" Guthrie tells him.

"That must've been very scary." He looks at me and asks, "were you scared?"

I don't say anything, I just stare at him. I feel Adam hug me.

"She doesn't say anything," Guthrie tells him. "She just cries and stares."

"Well that's alright," the doctor says, looking at me and smiling. Then he turns to Guthrie. "Then how about we start with you Guthrie. Are you hurt anywhere?"

"No, I got some scrapes and bruises, but that's about it. Hannah already cleaned them." The doctor looks at Hannah and she smiles and nods.

"That's good, because I know Hannah's very good at cleaning up scrapes and bruises." He looks at me again. "How about you Heidi? Are you hurt anywhere?"

I don't answer. Hannah says, "I haven't had a chance to look at her yet."

"Why don't I check to see if anything's swollen and we'll let Hannah check out your scrapes and bruises later," the doctor says to me. I feel Hannah pull my sleeves up and the doctor looks at my arms. Then she carefully lifts my jeans up to my knees and he looks at my legs.

The doctor looks at Hannah and says, "everything seems to look ok, but you call me if you see something you think I need to look at." She nods.

He stands up and says, "Adam may I have a word with you?"

"Sure. Why don't we go into the kitchen," he says. Hannah sits on the couch and Adam passes me to her and gets up. She scoots over towards Guthrie and puts her arm around him and holds us both close to her.

Adam and the doctor walk into the kitchen and my brothers follow them. I can hear them talking.

"How come she won't talk Doc?" I hear Daniel ask.

"Is she gonna be ok?" Evan asks. "Yeah, is she?" Ford asks.

Then I hear Adam say, "you three go back in the living room so the Doc can talk to us." Ford, Evan and Daniel come back in and plop down on the couch across from us.

"No fair." Evan complains.

"Sh. Let's listen," Daniel says. And everyone's quiet.

"What'd you think doc?" Brian asks from the kitchen.

"Physically, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with them," the Doctor says. "But emotionally, you're going to have a little bit of a problem."

"What exactly does that mean?" Adam asks.

"Heidi's in shock. I've seen this before. Eventually she'll come out of it. It may take hours, it may take days. It's something you're going to have to watch. I would also be worried about Guthrie." The Doctor tells them.

"Guthrie? Why Guthrie? He seems fine," Brian asks.

"Guthrie may seem fine now but eventually he too may show signs of shock. He might withdraw or cry. Just keep an eye on him too." The Doctor says.

"We will Doc," Adam says.

"Remember," the Doctor says, "these two have been chased through the woods and shot at. They've been through a lot and they're just little kids. Expect them to be clingy and to have nightmares."

"Thanks Doc. We'll keep an eye on them," Adam says.

"Good. Now if anything changes or seems to get worse, don't hesitate to call me. Please. Day or night," he says.

They all walk into the living room and Adam shakes the Doctor's hand and walks him to the door. After the Doctor leaves Adam starts to pace. The telephone rings and Daniel picks it up and says hello. "Hey Adam, it's the Sheriff. He wants to talk to you."

Adam walks to the phone and we all listen. He doesn't say much and then he hangs up the phone.

"What'd he want?" Brian asks.

"He wants me, you, Guthrie and Heidi to go down to his office in the morning," he says.

"Do you think that's a good idea? To have Guthrie and Heidi go?" Crane asks.

"I don't know, he said he really wants them there," Adam says. He starts pacing again.

"Are we gonna get in trouble?" Guthrie asks. I look at Adam.

"No. Neither of you are going to be in trouble. He just wants to ask us some questions."

"I swear Adam, I want to knock those guys into tomorrow!" Brian yells. He's angry.

"Me too!" Daniel agrees. And then Crane, Evan and Ford agree too. They're up and yelling about how they want to beat up Ace and Lucky. Hannah gets up and tries to calm them down, and Adam says he wants to get a piece of them too. My brothers are mad. Brian is kicking the wall and they won't stop yelling.

They're yelling so loud it's giving me a headache. I just want them to stop. I look at Guthrie and he looks scared. He starts to cry.

"Stop!" I scream and then I start to cry.

Hannah rushes over to us and sits in between us and puts her arms around us. She hugs us to her and my brothers all stare at us. We can't stop crying.

Adam starts to pace again. "Let's all calm down," he says. "We have to let the Sheriff take care of this now."

Hannah motions for Crane and Daniel to come sit with us. They take her place on the couch and try to calm us down.

"Why don't you sing to them," she suggests. They start singing softly and we listen to their voices and calm down.

Then she walks over to Adam and hugs him, "stop pacing. Everything's going to be ok. They're safe." Then she says to everyone, "none of us has eaten yet and it's late. You all must be starved. Let's get some food on the table and maybe that'll cheer everyone up." Nobody says anything, but they don't disagree either.

* * *

Hannah calls everyone to eat and Crane looks at me and asks if I want to eat. I look up at him and stare into his eyes. He looks like he might cry and then he picks me up and hugs me. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there to protect you," he says to me.

Hannah comes over and tells me and Guthrie she's made us some chicken noodle soup and do we want some. "Why don't you two sit here on the couch and I'll bring it out to you."

Crane sets me down next to Guthrie on the couch and Hannah brings out our soup. "Please eat some. It'll make you feel better," she says smiling at us. Guthrie takes a spoonful and Hannah stares at me and says, "go on." I take a bite too. It tastes good and I eat more.

"There," she says. "I'll be back in a little while to see if you want seconds." And she walks back into the kitchen.

We sit here and eat and listen to the conversation in the kitchen.

"How could you let them wander so far away from home?" Adam is asking. He doesn't sound mad, but he doesn't sound happy either.

"I didn't know," Evan says, "they only gave me half of the map."

"Yeah, they only gave me half too. I didn't know where they were either," Ford says.

"Adam, all you guys are just as much responsible for this as Ford and Evan are," Hannah says. "You act like Guthrie and Heidi are only here to help you with the chores you don't want to do. Most of the time you don't even listen to them. They want to contribute to this family just as much as you guys do."

Guthrie and I look at each other and we get tears in our eyes. I reach over to him and hold his hand.

"Please talk, Heidi. I miss you," he says.

"Did they catch the bad guys?" I ask with tears falling down my cheeks.

"They got Ace, but they're gonna look for Lucky in the morning," Guthrie says sadly.

I start to cry harder. "What if they can't find him? Are you scared Guthrie?" He nods his head up and down and I can see the fear in his eyes.

Guthrie and I look at each other. We haven't had a chance to talk to each other yet about what happened. I look at Guthrie and say while crying, "thank you for saving me. I was so scared." We're both crying so hard we're yelling.

"Me too," he says crying. "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you when you said you wanted to go home. I'm sorry I made us stay to get the gold."

"It's ok. I just wish we had the gold from Lucky's pouch. Then we would've really been able to help with the roof." We cry and hug each other tightly.

"Is that why you went panning for gold?" Adam asks walking into the living room. "Because you wanted to help with the roof?"

We look over at him and nod our heads. "Sorry," Guthrie says loudly while crying.

"I'm sorry too," I say just as loud while crying.

Adam kneels down close to us and says, "come here." We get up and hug him. "I'm sorry we didn't listen to you," Adam says holding us. "It's so good to hear your voice," he says squeezing me.

"He was shooting at us...we were running...he was shooting...," I yell out.

"I know, I know. It's going to be ok." He says rocking us back and forth. And we just cry.


	7. Chapter 7

I'm sitting on my bed and Hannah is brushing my hair. She made me take a bath and she cleaned up all my scrapes so I'm all ready for bed now. Guthrie's taking his bath now. Hannah told us we had to get cleaned up and ready for bed. So now we're sitting on my bed and she's brushing my hair.

"Hannah, I don't want to go to bed," I tell her.

"I know. Are you afraid of having a bad dream?" She asks while brushing my hair. "I am," Guthrie says. He's done with his bath now and he's standing in my doorway.

I look up at him. "Maybe we could stay up all night and then we won't have any bad dreams," I say.

"Yeah! It could be like we're having a camp-out or something," Guthrie says. "Can we sleep together downstairs? We could build a fort."

Hannah laughs. "I don't think so. You two need sleep. Guthrie, you're going to sleep downstairs with Brian. You've had a very busy day and you need to get some rest. You'll feel much better tomorrow if you do."

"Ok. Goodnight Hannah," he says and kisses her goodnight. She gives him a big hug and kisses him back. "Goodnight Heidi," he says to me and he goes downstairs.

"Who am I gonna sleep with?" I ask.

"How about me?" She asks while getting up and putting my brush on top of my dresser.

"But what if you fall asleep? Then I'll be all alone because I'm not going to sleep. I'm not even going to close my eyes," I tell her.

"Well, let me get ready for bed and then we'll see who can stay up the longest," she kisses the top of my head on her way out.

I sit there on my bed for a little bit until I realize I'm alone. I start to think about the day and decide I should get up and go find someone to talk to while I wait for Hannah. I walk out in the hallway and it's dark. I see Guthrie has a flashlight on downstairs so there's a little bit of light. I can hear my brothers are awake in their room and the door's still open a little, so I walk over to it.

Crane, Daniel, Evan and Ford share a room. Sometimes Guthrie and Brian sleep in there too when they switch beds with someone. They have bunk beds and I've always wanted a bunk bed. I would sleep on the top bunk every night if I had one. I've slept in their room before on the top bunk and it was fun. I can hear they're awake so I go to their room.

I stand in the doorway and watch. They're laughing and throwing things at each other. It looks like they're throwing socks at each other. "That's not mine Daniel!" Evan says laughing and throws the sock over to Ford. "It must be Ford's smelly sock!"

Then Crane says, "hold on a sec guys, there's a little lady in the room." Everyone turns and looks at me and smiles. "What are you doing out of bed?" Crane asks.

"Waiting for Hannah," I tell him.

"You can wait in here if you want," Ford says. "You can even wait up here if you want." Ford sleeps on the top bunk.

"Ok!" I walk over to the bed and Daniel picks me up and puts me on top. I sit on the top bunk with Ford and watch my brothers.

"I don't know why she'd wanna be up there with you Ford and your smelly socks." They laugh. I sit quietly and just listen to them joke with each other and watch how funny they are. And it doesn't take long before I lay on my side and close my eyes.

* * *

I wake up in the middle of the night because someone is kicking me. I sit up and forget where I am for a minute. Then I see I'm up in Ford's bed and he's moving around. It's dark in here and everyone's asleep. I move over to the ladder and climb down. I walk as quiet as I can out to the hall. It's dark out here too. I can see Guthrie's flashlight is still on and I hear Brian snoring downstairs. I walk over to my room because my light is still on. I look in and it's empty. I'm not really tired so I stand there for a minute. I hear someone crying softly. It's Guthrie.

I walk downstairs and over to his bed. Brian is still snoring and Guthrie isn't awake, he's just making crying noises in his sleep. He must be having a bad dream. I shake him gently and he wakes up. "You were having a bad dream," I say. I climb in their bed and push Brian over a little so I can be in the middle. Brian stops snoring and wakes up a little.

"What's going on?" He asks. "Scoot over Guthrie," he says and he pushes me over and I push him back. That wakes him up all the way. He sits up and looks at me and groans.

"What are you doing down here?" He asks me.

"Guthrie was having a bad dream so I came down here."

"Well, he's not having a bad dream now. Go back to bed," he says and lays back down.

"I wanna sleep here," I tell him. Brian groans again and gets up. He takes his pillow and walks over to the couch. He plops down on it and says, "goodnight."

I lay there with Guthrie and Guthrie says, "Heidi? Do you think we'll have bad dreams every night?"

"I hope not. I don't like having them. Do you think Adam will let us go adventuring again?" I ask.

"I don't know. He said he was grateful we were alive, but he also said when he was done being grateful we had a lot of explaining to do."

"Will you two be quite over there!" Brian yells over. "Go to sleep!" And he throws his pillow over at us. We giggle. And then we just lay there waiting to fall asleep.

* * *

We don't have anymore bad dreams that night and when I wake up in the morning I'm the only one in bed. I sit up and stretch and then I remember what I have to do today. We have to go into town to the Sheriff's office and answer questions. I don't want to go. Hannah comes in the living room and sees that I'm awake.

"Good morning sleepyhead," she says to me. "Why don't you go get dressed. Breakfast will be ready in a little bit."

"Hannah? Do I have to go today?" I ask.

She comes over and sits on the bed next to me. She rubs my back and says, " yes. I'm sorry but you do." I start to cry a little.

"Are you afraid?" She asks. I nod my head. "Adam and Brian will be there. Guthrie too. Why don't you get up and get dressed and it'll all be over before you know it." I get up but I have a feeling the morning is going to be a long morning.

* * *

When we stop in front of the Sheriff's office I don't want to get out of the jeep, but I do. The four of us walk in and Adam says hi to the Sheriff.

"Does Heidi have to be here?" He asks.

The Sheriff looks at me and then back at Adam, "I suppose not. We could probably get all the information we need from Guthrie. We also found the other poacher earlier this morning and we need one of them to identify him."

It is a relief to me that they found Lucky. I was worried he would come after me and Guthrie. The Sheriff took Brian, Guthrie and Adam to the back and I sat in a chair in the front office. It felt weird to sit there knowing Ace and Lucky were somewhere back there. It was almost a little scary. My brothers were back there for a while when Guthrie comes running out.

"Guess what! We got the reward money!" He shouts.

I smile at him. "We did?" I get up and we hug each other. "Now we can help pay for the roof!"

Adam, Brian and the Sheriff come out and they shake hands. The Sheriff looks at me and Guthrie and puts his hand out to shake our hands too. "Thank you Guthrie, thank you Heidi. You two helped us catch some very bad men." Then he turns to Adam, "I'll be in touch."

"Thanks Sheriff," Adam says and we walk outside and pile into the jeep.

"I can't wait to tell everyone!" Guthrie says. And the drive home only seems to take a minute.

* * *

When we get home everyone comes running out to the jeep. There are so many questions and Guthrie is trying to answer them all.

"Hold on! Let's go inside and we can answer all your questions one at a time," Adam says and we all make our way over to the house. Crane picks me up and swings me around but for some reason it doesn't make me laugh or smile. "What's wrong?" He asks picking me up. I shrug my shoulders.

When we get inside I sit with Crane on the couch. Everyone is excited about the reward money. I'm not really listening to them talk because there are so many questions. Guthrie tries to answer them all and he seems really excited. My stomach is starting to hurt.

"Why so quiet?" Crane asks. I just shrug my shoulders because I'm not really sure why. Then I start to feel scared and I know why.

"Are Ace and Lucky going to be in jail for a long time?" I ask.

Everyone looks at me. I feel really scared and I look around at everyone. Crane puts his arm around me and Adam says, "as a matter of fact they are going to be in jail for a _very_ long time."

"Here?" I ask still scared.

"Turns out they were wanted in two other states," Brian says. "They'll be taking them to Colorado tomorrow and they'll be in jail there for a very long time."

I breathe out a huge sigh of relief and everyone smiles at me. "See, you don't have to worry," Crane says while giving me a big squeeze. And I smile up at him. "There's that beautiful smile," he says. And I giggle.

I sit and listen to my brothers talk. They talk about money and how they'll be able to fix the roof. They talk about other things too but I'm not paying attention to what they're saying. Instead I'm looking at all of them talk and I see how happy they are. I look over at Guthrie who's sitting across from me and he looks at me too and we smile, and I know everything's going to be ok.

**Thanks again for the reviews. They really do help to motivate me!**


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